I don't know about you guys but March sure did come in like a lion for the Laws. It started with a family vacation in Hawaii, a quick trip to Spring training in Arizona and ended with celebrations for my birthday and a promotion. I felt like we had plenty of reasons to celebrate this past month. With celebration and vacation comes a lot of drinking, good food, and cake... lots of cake. Ken and I ended the month with full hearts and full bellies.
I'm pretty bad at cutting things completely out of my diet but I strive to eat clean. I try not to deprive myself of any particular food group, but to keep everything in moderation. However, all that celebration left my 80/20 rule (80% clean, 20% cheat) a bit lopsided. Ken and I were both ready to get back on track with our health and fitness goals. We wanted to rid our bodies of all that sodium, sugar and booze, so we decided to try Beachbody's 3 day refresh. First of all, let me tell you I have never tried anything like this before. I don't believe in cleanses or detoxes. Mostly because my friend, Dr. Nicholson, (oh ya, I dropped the Dr in there) sent me this fascinating article which provides a great deal of background on why cleanses are a sham and that the only people who medically need detox are those who have high levels of drugs, alcohol or poisons in their bodies.
While all that sugar and sodium in my body did feel like poison, I knew I wasn't a candidate for detox. I am really bad at depriving myself of certain foods but I did feel like I was getting addicted to sodium and sugar. I was craving all the crap I had cut out of my body 9 months ago when I started eating clean. I knew I had to give it all up, cold turkey. The 3 day refresh is a strict vegan and shake based diet. It's not juicing and it does allow some food, mostly veggies and some fruits. But you cut out all other food: meat, dairy, sugar, etc. Here is what the Beachbody website claims about the 3 day refresh:
"In just 3 short days, you can get your health, energy, and vitality back on track—all without starving. You'll conquer your cravings. Get a flatter belly. Feel lighter and more energized. And your clothes will fit better. The Complete Kit comes with 3 packets of Shakeology, 6 packets of Vanilla Fresh (high-protein shake), 3 packets of Fiber Sweep (digestive health drink), and 1 Program Guide."
Sounds perfect, right? Let me first tell you, it works. If you stick to the plan you will lose weight. I lost 3.5 lbs in 3 days and Ken lost 6.5 lbs in 3 days. But let me get real with you, real quick. I was hungry. Real hungry. Fregging HANGRY. Like I'm going to have to shut my office door and not talk to anyone because I might say something to get myself fired, hungry. If I wasn't doing this with Ken, I probably would have quit. We talked each other off the ledge several times, but we kept telling ourselves its only 3 days. Which is true, you can pretty much do anything for 3 days.
For those of you still curious, let me walk you through a day in the life of a 3 day refresher.
Morning: wake up and drink 8 oz of water. While they recommend you cut out coffee if you can, you are allowed some but it must be black. I had coffee, black. Ken did not. He is a better Refresher than me.
Breakfast: Shakeology blended with 10 oz of water and you can have 1 serving of fruit. You can either blend this with your shake or eat it separate. I choose to have it separate a little bit later in the morning because I just needed to EAT something. Oh and by "1 serving" of fruit this is what they mean: 1/2 a medium apple, 1/2 a medium banana, or 2/3 cup blueberries, etc. The portions are stingy.
Optional: Morning tea - 8 oz of unsweetened herbal or green tea, at least 1 hour after breakfast. Not only did I do this, but I literally drank tea all DAMN day. Added bonus - I found out I really enjoyed mint tea. I'm actually drinking some right now.
Mid-Morning - Fiber Sweep mixed with 8 oz of water. I'm not going to lie: the fiber sweep pack tastes like Sh#t. I would literally mix as little water as possible and gag it down as fast as I could. Just awful. I imagine this is what Metamucil tastes like but honestly, I've never tried it. Ken said it wasn't THAT bad.
Lunch - Vanilla Fresh Shake mixed with 10 oz of water. I actually didn't mind this shake. I liked the taste and I would mix it with ice, water, cinnamon and pure almond extract (these "guilt free" flavorings are allowed). Plus you get 1 serving of fruit, 1 serving of vegetable, and 1 healthy fat. Examples of 1 serving of vegetable are: 12 green beans, 1 small red pepper, or 5 baby carrots. 5 f#cking baby carrots, are you kidding me? After day 1, I started opting for the fruit and veggies that gave me the most bang for the buck. One whole red pepper it is. My healthy fat was 2 tbsp of hummus or avocado.
Afternoon snack: 1 serving vegetable, 1 serving healthy fat. Same stingy portions apply.
Optional: Afternoon tea. YES PLEASE. Realistically I'm probably on cup 4 now.
Dinner: Vanilla Fresh Shake mixed with 10 oz water, plus one serving from the dinner recipes. Most of the recipes were small portions of steamed veggies with coconut oil, or ginger and garlic. I found myself really looking forward to a hot meal at dinner so I would try to eat the dinner recipes slowly and savor every last bite. You can also add 1 cup of vegetable broth for dinner, which is optional. Obviously we both added this at dinner and mixed chopped cilantro to the broth as well. Surprisingly good. I guess depriving your body of food will make you like anything warm. That's my theory at least.
Optional: Evening tea. Again, optional is not even a word in my vocabulary at this point. If they are allowing me to eat ANYTHING, I will willingly take it. Normally at night after we get the kids down I look forward to coming downstairs, sitting on the couch and having a snack. Now I only had my tea to look forward to. Again, I drank it reaaaallllly slow.
You are supposed to drink plenty of water throughout the day as well, at least half your body weight in ounces.
Ken and I found ourselves going to bed earlier than normal. Maybe it's because we were hungry. Maybe it's because we were too weak to stay up later but the whole claim of having more energy on this refresh was a crock of sh#t for us.
The program recommends only a light to moderate workout. I ended up doing my normal 21 day fix extreme and 22 min hard corps workouts. Mostly because I needed a distraction in the afternoon from my starvation. I actually had the energy to do the workouts. Ken worked out the first 2 days but did not workout on day 3. He was too sore from day 2. His theory is he didn't have enough food to help his body recover.
So I know you are thinking okay so did you sh#t your brains out or what? The answer is surprisingly, no. Really, you pee about a million times a day from all the water, tea, shakes but other than that, we had no terrifying bodily side effects... so that's a plus.
Overall, I give this program a B- You do get to eat food, unlike juice cleanses. But by my calculation, you still are only eating about 900 calories a day. Day 1 was pure torture. Ken and I both were starving all day. Day 2 was much easier but by day 3 I was dreaming of all the things I was going to eat on day 4 when this program was over! We were both worried that we would erase all our progress the day after the refresh was over because we were going to be so hungry that we'd eat everything in sight. I had planned ahead to have some clean, 21 day fix friendly prepped for day 4. While neither one of us was specifically doing this to lose weight, we both lost weight. So I can't say it doesn't work. Everyone that I know that has done it has lost weight. I had 2 girlfriends do it in the last month they lost 3 and 4 lbs each. Below are my before and after pictures. Again, I was really doing this to lose weight, I really just wanted to reset my diet. Ken refused to let me publish his before and after but for the record he did take the photos. :-)
The catch is you have to keep it off. Unless you keep your body filled with clean portioned controlled food, chances are you are going to gain it back. I think the best use of this program is as a kickstart to a clean diet. When you really want to cleanse your palette of sweet and salty food, use this for the first 3 days and then continue on a clean eating program like 21 day fix or whole 30. I will say on day 4 I had to do a taste test for chocolate truffles at work (ya, rough, I know right?) I had a few small nibbles of 4 different truffles and my stomach hurt after eating them. It was like a sugar shock to my body. That's enough motivation to keep it clean.
This was not easy and it was definitely not fun but it did what I wanted it to, kickstart healthier choices. It's not right for everyone, but hey I'll try anything once if it's going make me look younger, thinner, or prettier.
Holler at me if you are crazy enough to try the 3 day refresh or have interest in clean eating. I'm happy to share the "real deal" with anyone who is interested. Until next time, I'll just be sitting here enjoying my mint tea.
